


Thermal

by Tsume_Yuki



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto
Genre: F/M, Families of Choice, Female Uzumaki Naruto, Grumpy Sasuke, He's Lucky Naruto Puts Up With Him, Mentor Naruto, Reborn Naruto and Sasuke, airbender naruto, firebender sasuke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-24 18:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4930660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsume_Yuki/pseuds/Tsume_Yuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there's one thing Naruto knows for certain, it's that she and Sasuke will always be destined to be in the thick of it. So, reborn into a brand new world, she really shouldn't have been surprised she ended up helping fight against the rule of another tyrannical asshole.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hiemal

 

 

 

**0.5  
** _Hiemal_

_  
_

 

 

"So, this is the Southern Water Tribe, huh?" Naruto cocked her head to a side, blinking those grey eyes that still didn't sit quite right in her face.

Stood beside the blonde, Sasuke watched her watch the stretch of barren snow that was their current destination.

Nine years of travelling the world together, gaining an understanding of this strange new place they'd been born into, it'd certainly been an experience with Naruto at his side.

The blonde never failed to make things interesting.

They'd seen the injustice happening all around them, the war -why was it that it this world or their old one there was always some fighting going on?- and sworn to train, to get strong enough to fight and make a difference.

Even if they could actually join the Earth Kingdom Army -as if they'd let a Firebender in their ranks- the reborn duo had been determined.

They'd managed to duck through the Fire Nation once already, dying Naruto's hair black with a potent mixture of ingredients such as charcoal. The Earth Kingdom hadn't been that big of a problem, Naruto had walked around with her hair golden blonde once again, and while she'd gotten a fair few stares -no one here seemed to have any variation when it came to hair colour, it was all browns or blacks- and Sasuke's eyes were such a dark shade of gold most seemed to mistake them for the ebony he'd had in his previous life.

Having visited the Fire Nation, made their way through the Earth Kingdom and popped in on one of the Air Temples -Naruto had insisted on burying all the dead they'd found, understandably- they only had one place left to go and visit.

The Water Tribes.

As such, here they now stood, having left one of the very few trading boats the Earth Kingdom ever bothered to send out to the South, a pack slung over each of their shoulders.

Two middle aged women stared quite blatantly at them, switching between Naruto's obnoxiously coloured hair to Sasuke's painfully Fire Nation colouring. Their blue eyes were round with worry and fear, and Sasuke could hear Naruto suck in a determined breath before she began making her way over.

Now in a land that had much less chance of running into a Fire Nation Brigade -or hell even a soldier- Naruto had reverted back to her favoured orange, even if she'd been sensible enough to pair some white with it, given their current location of choice.

Sasuke himself had stuck to simple black and white, not a commonly used combination, especially without any colours to determine his heritage.

Regarding his appearance, he was basically thumbing his nose up at the Fire Nation.

Rightfully so, considering their tyranny status right now.

"Hi there! My name's Naruto and this is Sasuke, we're looking for the Southern Water Tribe, is it around here?" Naruto beamed, a grin across her face and tanned, whiskered cheeks lifting with the force of her smile.

Sasuke didn't even try to offer one of his own, already well aware that it'd look less than sincere. He couldn't smile on command like Naruto did.

Glower, yes.

Smile, no.

Hesitantly, the two women shared a look before one nodded, the other quietly asking what the two of them were even doing here.

Beaming, Naruto rocked back on her heels, before seemingly to notice that he wasn't stood quite beside her, and instead, just a little behind. With a huff, she latched onto his arm, pulling him closer to the duo and ignoring the way the women flinched back.

"We're travelling, we've been all over the place and I've heard so many good things about Water Tribe Sea Prunes and I really wanna try them for myself and the Southern Tribe was closer than the North one."

When the two women didn't seem to be any more convinced, Naruto frowned a bit more, rubbing at the back of her neck and scowling when she encountered the resistance of her thick orange parka.

"Ignore Sasuke, he's just grumpy because you don't grow tomatoes up here."

"Naruto!" Sasuke hissed under his breath, clocking the girl around the head and scowling as she giggled at the reprimand.

The two women shared one more glance, before the one on the right finally gave a low nod.

"Okay… We'll show you the way."

Even as she spoke though, glances were taken of their eyes once again, and Sasuke made sure to keep his head angled in such a way the light wouldn’t catch his irises, leaving his eyes looking as if they were nothing more that coal.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It'd been two weeks since Hokiri and Nenahn had brought back two strangers to the camp.

Kanna watched them move with wary eyes, had made certain to always watch them whenever she could. The two travellers were young, perhaps only two or three years older than her grandson.

But they moved with a grace that Kanna hadn't seen for years. She could pick out a pair of benders when she saw them, regardless of how many years it'd been since she last saw one.

She was, admittedly, quite terrified of the two.

The boy was a fire bender.

There was no way he was anything other than a fire bender. She'd caught him quickly pulling on a parka whenever he left the little igloo their tribe had offered them, but his limbs had never shaken from the cold.

The very few times she'd passed by the two, when they'd shook hands upon meeting, he was always so very warm. There was nothing she could do though.

Even if she were to announce what the boy was, that didn't mean they would be able to do anything about it. He was skilled, it was obvious in the way he moved, how he never stopped taking note of his surroundings.

The only thing that didn't stop her from barring them completely from the village was how the two interacted.

The boy was completely besotted with the girl. His eyes followed her everywhere she went, he straightened every time he had her attention, gave her the most subtle touches that were just embedded with genuine affection. The brat was head over heels in love.

All the women of the village could see it, all but Katara and the young children. Her granddaughter was better off not being infatuated with a fire bender, but Kanna could understand the appeal. He was after all, the first male in the village to be both Katara's age and not her brother.

He didn't have eyes for anyone other than his sunny companion though, so Kanna felt no worries about her granddaughter shaking up with a fire bender. Sokka would not doubt have a heart attack.

She could see why the boy was so smitten with his golden haired companion. Even disregarding her exceedingly rare hair colour -Kanna had never seen anything like it, hair as golden as the sun- the female was pretty, with her strange markings on her cheeks and her sparkling grey eyes.

As if that wasn't enough, her personality was as bright and warm as her appearance.

Kanna very carefully kept away from saying the girl was as free as the air itself, but it was a very near thing.

Yet, when she looked at the blonde, she couldn't stop herself from internally admitting that perhaps, just perhaps, the Air Nomads weren't quite as extinct as the Fire Nation would have liked.

Which brought up the question that, if she were right, why were an air bender and fire bender travelling together? She wasn't even going to question how they'd end up friends -and more- for she didn't doubt it was an excessively long story. Yet, the only reason she could think of that two of them were travelling was in a search for the Avatar.

To help train him. Wherever he may be.

The boy couldn't be on the Fire Nation's side, otherwise he wouldn't be in the South Pole, not with an air bender. Not with such affection he tried to hide behind that tough guy mask.

He even helped Sokka train. The boy carried a sword with him, and clearly knew how to use it. Both that and all the other weapons Sokka had shown him. The fire bender had only needed a day to puzzle out each weapon before he could use them, if not as well as a fully trained Southern Warrior, with a startling amount of efficiency.

"Good morning!"

Snapping to attention, Kanna offered the golden haired girl, Naruto, a nod of greeting, quite unable to help the small smile that stretched across her face. She did have a very pleasant personality, and Kanna's eyes lingered on the orange of her parka -who else would dare to wear orange other than an Air Nomad?- for longer than what was probably appropriate?

"Did I dibble some soup down my parka? I know it wasn't the sea prunes, none of those escaped me," Naruto asked, twisting back and forth, pulling at the hem of the coat in question as she tried to see the non-existent stain.

"No… I just thought orange was an interesting colour choice I'm afraid."

The blonde froze up a little, before a cautious smile slowly crept across her face.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?"

Naruto offered her best sheepish smile with the question, looking left to right, as if expecting the Fire Nation to appear on the horizon for their current topic of choice. Well, that confirmed that then.

"Of course not… Though the company you keep-"

"Sasuke cool," Naruto cut off instantly, grey eyes hardening just the slightest and a firm line forming as her lips pressed together, "he's my best friend, and I trust him with my life. Regardless of what his lineage may be."

And that settled that. Perhaps Kanna didn't trust the fire bender.

But she trusted Naruto, she trusted the air bender among them and felt just the tiniest bit safer at night, knowing there was at least one fighter in their ranks, as temporary as that might be. If they were attacked, she knew Naruto would fight for them. She had seen the way she'd interacted with the children, spoken with their mothers, sparred with Sokka and talked with Katara. Naruto would defend them, and because Naruto would defend them, so too would the fire bender.

And that would have to do for Kanna at this moment in time.

Now, if only she could talk the two into staying a bit longer.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Sprawling out across the fur-skins that filled the role of their bed, Naruto stared up at the ceiling, even as she snuggled closer to Sasuke's naked chest.

Here, in the thicken of snow and ice, Sasuke was the greatest blessing she'd ever known. His fire bending -what a strange world this was, no chakra and only one element, two if you were a smug fire bender like Sasuke- meant he was practically a full sized space heater she could cuddle up next to.

"They need help."

Sasuke spoke so quietly that Naruto barely heard him, wouldn't have known to listen for his voice in the blizzard winds were it not for the rumble of his chest.

Humming, Naruto tightened her grip on Sasuke's arm a little bit more, frowning into the pale flesh of his torso. Sasuke was right. These people were down trodden, they were losing hope. And once you lost hope, you lost everything.

She couldn't sit back and watch them lose the will to fight for what was right, to stop fighting for themselves.

"The spirits said to come here," Naruto murmured, running a hand across her face and letting out a low sigh as she did so, "clearly something going to end up going down. Looks like we're just playing the waiting game for now."

"Tch, wish they'd picked somewhere warmer for us to wait."

"Yeah yeah, shut your mouth and warm me up, Teme."

"With pleasure, Dobe."


	2. Miniver

 

 

 

 

**0.9**   
_Miniver_   


 

 

 

_  
_

Katara of the Southern Water Tribe was in love.

Okay, so it wasn't quite love, more of a little girlhood crush really, but who could blame her? The stranger that Hokiri and Nenahn had brought back to the village was oh so pretty.

So was his companion though, and Katara just knew the duo were in some form of relationship. The girl didn't wear an engagement necklace or pendant, but then again, neither of the two were members of the Water Tribe. They obviously went by different customs, Naruto had even said so herself when Hokiri asked the golden haired girl about it.

Katara had never seen someone with that kind of colouring, had never even heard of someone with blonde hair before. That alone made her incredibly pretty to look at, but her face was nicely shaped too. She was older than Katara, didn't have the puppy fat from childhood that Katara did.

She was a woman, and it was evident in the way she looked, the way she moved. The way Sasuke couldn't keep his eyes off her.

Hell, even Sokka had noticed that the dark haired, dark eyed boy was completely head over heels for the blonde. It was the reason her brother hadn't made any remarks to the woman.

That, and she could apparently hand her brother his ass in hand to hand combat. Spirits, did she wish she'd been there to see that.

But, back to the point.

She liked Sasuke. Even if she would never make a move on him because, hello, he was so obviously taken, that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the fact he was pretty to look at.

Really pretty.

She did need to get out of the Southern Water Tribe at some point, to see the world, to master water bending -begin learning at all really- and perhaps even meet a pretty boy of her own.

Maybe.

She wanted him to be nice. To look at her the way Sasuke looked at Naruto.

Those were Katara's aspirational goals. Two out of the three really drummed down to being like Naruto now that she thought about it.

Naruto was actually kind of amazing though. She'd travelled the world, still was.

Had learnt so much from all the different places she'd visited, she could fight really well according to Sokka, and she had a man to call her own.

In the privacy of her own mind, Katara liked to think that maybe this was what it was like to have an older sister.

Naruto sat and talked to her all the time, told her tales of her adventures, and she taught Katara about men. How to play them.

Well, that's what Naruto had called it, what she'd really been teaching her was how to get men to do what she wanted. Naruto seemed pretty good at it, though the results may be a bit biased, seeing as the only subjects Naruto had to work her magic on were Sasuke, who was already in love with her, and Sokka, who would apparently venture out into a snowstorm for any pretty girl that paid him some attention.

Not that Naruto had tricked Sokka into going out into a snow storm. Only made him carry the heavy fishing equipment.

Katara hadn't really gotten a chance to try out these new skills though, given that her only test subjects were her brother or Sasuke. One of which was, ew, her brother, and the other one liked to pretend to be in an eternal dark mood.

Still, when needled correctly, Sasuke would end up trailing after Naruto to come fishing with them, and while he didn't do any actually fishing, he wasn't afraid of any heavy lifting like Sokka was. He even helped cook, starting a fire so much quicker than Katara could with the flint rocks she was more than happy to hand over.

When asked, Naruto had explained that Sasuke was usually the one to handle firewood and general fire duty when they camped, while she would be the one to cook. They took it in turns hunting and foraging, an idea Katara found incredibly novel. She could actually picture Naruto hunting an animal down.

Yeah, she totally wanted to be just like Naruto when she grew up. Even if Naruto was only three years her elder, she wanted to be as cool as the golden haired woman in the future.

Right now though-

"Good morning, Naruto, Sasuke."

"Morning, Katara!" Came Naruto thunderous bellow, the girl casually throwing back the heavy fur entrance and allowing Katara entry to their little igloo.

It was unfairly hot inside given that they were approaching deep winter, and the water bender found herself blushing furiously when she saw Sasuke was in the process of pulling on a shirt. So that was what men's body's looked like.

Blushing furiously and thankful the male had only been shirtless -her poor heart couldn't take anything else being on show, even if a part of her was both curious and vaguely disappointed- Katara shakily held out the pair of parkas that's been resting in her arms. One was a very dark navy, the other, a dull orange. She hadn't had access to a lot of dye, and it's really been trial and error.

But when she'd asked Gran Gran, the woman had insisted that they at least make a significant effort to see one of the parkas turn out orange. Katara wasn't too sure why, she only knew that orange was Naruto's absolute favourite colour.

"We, er, made these for you, as a thank you, for helping out around the village." Thrusting the parkas forwards, Katara felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment and she refused to look up at the duo.

The Southern Water Tribe didn't have much, didn't get any guests before Naruto and Sasuke; the parkas weren't much. The two had probably gotten better gifts before.

Still though, Naruto took them almost reverently, handing the navy one over to Sasuke and holding her own out before her.

"These, are for us?" Naruto asked softly, deep grey eyes almost reflecting blue in the ice of the igloo.

"I know it's not much, but-"

"Katara," Sasuke spoke her name for the first time, and the young water bender's head snapped up to look at him in shock. His voice was dipped in a thick emotion as he offered her a precise, well practiced bow. "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you, Katara." Naruto gave her the same bow, eyes looking wet and a smile on her face.

Uncomfortable, Katara shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, chewing on her bottom lip and furiously trying to wish away the burning sensation on her cheeks.

"Erm, me and Sokka are going fishing later, if you want to come?"

"Ah, not this time I'm afraid; your grandmother asked us to go and hunt down some tiger seals for her, and we'd hate to disappoint."

Well, that was actually a bit of a relief; it was several shades of nerve wracking to have both the visitors undivided attention at once.

"Okay. I'll see you two later then."

 

* * *

 

 

Pulling the white fur lining of the new orange parka a little closer around her head, Naruto squinted into the blizzard, focusing on the small Uchiha fan Katara had oh so painstakingly stitched into the back of Sasuke's coat.

She'd asked long before today, what the little symbols were, why they were always present in one way or another on Naruto and Sasuke's clothes. She'd seemed pretty damn wistful when Naruto had explained it was their family symbols. The fact she'd even gone to the effort of attempting to dye their clan symbols with the correct colours, well, Naruto was damn impressed. Even if they weren't the correct shades of red and white.

That they'd been given parkas, genuine Water Tribe parkas, was almost like being unofficially accepted into the tribe. They been all over the world, but few places had been as welcoming as the Water Tribe.

Only Pathik, back at the Eastern Air Temple, beat the Southerners when it came to acceptance; the aged guru hadn't even given them so much as a sceptical glance. His deep understanding of the Spirit World and the spiritual self had been a great help for Naruto and Sasuke, both of who had stumbled into the parallel plane more than once in their lives. It was something that came unnaturally easy to the two of them, being souls that were so often reincarnated.

"Are you waiting for the tiger seals to come to you, Dobe?"

Squawking at that accusation, Naruto darted forwards, a quick bit of light air bending letting her brown boots run over the snow instead of through it.

"I think we're far enough away from the village now, right?" Naruto asked, cocking her head to a side and watching the muscle in Sasuke's clenched jaw twitch.

"Hn."

With a grin at that confirmation, Naruto twisted her hands about, a bubble of carefully controlled air whirling into existence and began diverting all the blizzard winds around and away from them.

Air bending came as easily as breathing, if not more so, nowadays. It'd been rough, those first eight years without Sasuke. Without Kurama. Even when Naruto had nothing, she'd had Kurama. And now, she was in a new world, a world where Kurama wasn't and chakra didn't exist.

Instead, there was bending.

It was so restrictive, only allowing her to use one element. No matter how much she'd been fond of her wind jutsus, having a bit of variety never hurt anything. Yet, she loved air bending, had never felt freer than when she was performing it.

And this world, it was war, had been at war for such a long time that Naruto found it difficult to comprehend. A war that'd lasted near a century.

Fathers fighting, and then their sons fighting, and their sons after that, maybe even their sons after them too. A whole nation, her nation, wiped out as a result of one man's mad quest for power. As far as she was aware, Naruto was the last air bender around right now.

Sure, the Avatar was out there somewhere, and Naruto clung to that. Not that she was actually alone; she did have Sasuke.

Sasuke, who'd come to the village a day's travel away after hearing stories of a golden haired child. In a world of nothing but brown and black, the whispers of a girl with golden hair had made their way around the rumour mill.

And Sasuke had come looking for her.

Together, they'd travelled the world, they'd learnt everything they could of this new place they could call home.

They'd seen the injustice happening all around them, had fought bandits that tried to rob weary travellers, had sabotaged as much of the Fire Nation Army as they could while on the move. They'd stolen money for sick families to buy medicine, had personally escorted refugees towards safety, all the while never letting on that they were both benders.

They'd spent years, carefully honing their bending, making sure that if this was all they had to fight with, they were going to be damn effective with it.

Unable to trust anyone from the Fire Nation, and with no Air Nomads left, the two of them had been forced to rely on their own knowledge of taijutsu in order to create their own bending style.

There were, even now a decade of training later, still jerks and flaws.

But given the fact they'd had no one but each other to turn to when it came to working this thing out, Naruto liked to think they'd done pretty damn well.

When this Avatar returned, Naruto was going to give him a piece of her mind, and then she'd let him restore hope to those fighting the Fire Nation. After that, it'd be time to bring the fight to the Fire Nation and it's Lord.

There was another cycle of hatred to be broken here, and this time, she had Sasuke on side. There would be no battle to the death like there had been in their old world, there wouldn't be another situation for them to be thrown into the body of an infant.

Because they both agreed on what had to be done now.

 

 

 

They'd been camped out in the near the edge of the ocean for near three days, huddled beneath the tarp of the tent Sasuke had brought on the back of the little wooden sled, and the lucky placement of an overhanging, broken cliff face.

Sat between Sasuke's legs with a blanket wrapped around her front and Sasuke's toasty torso pressing to her back, Naruto buried her fingers further into the warm flesh of her armpits, scowling in annoyance.

They'd managed to successfully hunt down three tiger seals, killed quickly and as painlessly as they could manage. Given the fact Naruto could still move incredibly fast thanks to her air bending abilities, painless was something she could still manage.

She wasn't particularly happy to be killing animals, she'd never really enjoyed hunting back when she'd been a ninja. Killing just wasn't something she was hard wired to do.

In this life, she was an air bender, and air benders were suppose to be Air Nomads, before they'd all be wiped out. And Air Nomads hadn't eaten meat, hadn't believe in killing at all.

Was it insulting that she ate meat? Naruto hoped not, but there wasn't really anyone she could ask about it in all honesty.

All life was precious; she knew that was a teaching that the Air Nomads had stood by, and Naruto agreed with it. It was just that, well, all beings of nature ate whatever was below them on the food chain. So, while she would it meat, Naruto ate it far less often than she did during her previous life.

"I can smell your brain burning," Sasuke grumbled, chin plopping down on the crown of her skull and Naruto scoffed, folding her arms and scowling out across the calm salt water.

The blizzard had long since calmed down, leaving them to look out across the ocean as the sun came dangerously close to dipping beneath its surface. The sun rarely set here, which wasn't too big of a surprise. They were in the South Pole after all. Sasuke clearly appreciated the sunbeams, even if they didn't seem to carry any heat, he was still drawing in steady breaths behind her, ribs expanding and contracting beneath her back.

"Just thinking. Things are gonna pick up soon. I can feel it."

Sasuke hummed in agreement, staring out across the ocean as his grip around her waist tightened a bit.

It'd take them little more than half a day to get back; they'd been taking their time in an effort to blow off some metaphorical and some not so metaphorical steam.

Going so long without any bending was impossible, and they'd gotten to the point where using small things, like starting the fire with a click of fingers masterfully hidden behind flint rocks, or quickly drying off clothes that'd been damp with a quick blast of air, just weren't cutting it for the two of them anymore.

 

It was pure luck that they decided to head back an hour later, given the fact they'd been looking in the completely wrong direction to notice the massive pillar of light that announced the Avatar's return to the world.


	3. Palaver & Halation

 

 

 

 

**0.1  
** _Palaver_

_  
_

 

 

 

Crouching down low with the late summer's leaves shrouding his form, Uchiha Sasuke, former ninja and brand new fire bender, carefully shuffled about on his haunches as he peered out of his foliage cover.

It'd been eight years since he'd woken up here, in this strange new world in a new body, the body of an infant. Silent and watchful, he'd paid attention to everything as he'd grown, collected as much information as he could during the process.

First; he'd either been born into, or nearby, the Fire Nation colony of Sosrar that'd taken up residency within the Earth Kingdom, swallowing the previous town of Nishol whole.

Second, he'd been born a near carbon copy of his old self. The only difference was the eyes. There was no Sharingan, hell, there wasn't even any chakra here.

Instead there was chi and this strange 'bending' that boiled down to only being able to use one element. Though while there was one person in this world that could use all four, that was, unfortunately, not Sasuke himself.

Scowling down at the small yard that the orphanage led out onto, the dark haired boy tensed as the doors were thrown open, children streaming out one after the other, some so obviously orphans of Earth Kingdom decent, and others Fire Nation. Already the paler of the two had a superiority complex; Sasuke knew what to look for, he'd seen it every day in the mirror.

And then, there was a flash of blonde, a golden halo of hair and Sasuke knew, he just knew without even having to look at the face all that hair was attached to, that he was no longer alone in this awfully strange world.

 

 

 

 

**1.0  
** _Halation_

 

 

 

 

 

They were three hours away when the black snow began to fall.

Pausing in their steps, Naruto held her hand out, catching one of the small flakes on the palm of her borrowed white mittens, a frown on her face at the disgusting colour.

"Black snow? Why's it black?"

She frowned a bit deeper, Sasuke coming to stand beside her, one of his hands clasping the rope of the sled, the other grasping for her wrist so he too could get a better look at this oddity. It wasn't right. Snow was suppose to be pure white. The only reason it'd fall in a colour such as this, was if it was polluted while it was still in formation, if something got into the air before the snow began to fall.

"Soot," Sasuke hissed, dark golden eyes narrowing and flashing in the sunlight. Naruto's head snapped up, eyes wide and lips parting slightly as her mind raced.

Soot did not belong in the South Pole. Soot got into the air through burning wood and coal. And the only place, the only people they knew that would bring soot with them this far South was-

"Fire Nation," Sasuke hissed, looking back at the sled on which their tiger seals were piled up on, before his sharp gaze swung around to gaze in the direction of the little village in which they'd spent the past three months.

Now that they were looking for it between the expanse of snowy hills, it wasn't difficult to pick out the iron monstrosity that had to be a Fire Nation ship, even though it'd been many a year since the duo had actually seen one of them so threateningly close.

"Time to go," Naruto hissed, Sasuke dropping he rope to the sled without so much of a second thought.

Flexing the muscles of her arm for a second, Naruto took off running, Sasuke right beside her. Her hands twisted, arms whirling through the air to bend the wind back and behind them, increasing the speed and cutting the three hour journey down to three minutes.

It still wasn't quite enough though, no matter how much harder Naruto tried pushing both her body and her bending abilities, the two of them were still helpless to watch the ship pull out, having clearly retrieve what they had been searching for.

Grunting, Naruto skidded to a stop after they'd entered through the southern entrance, wincing when she forgot to slow down Sasuke's pace alongside hers and thus sent him stumbling into the snow pile that'd once been Sokka's watch tower. Bright grey eyes scanned the scared, terrified faces before them, all gathered around in the half circle, and Naruto's frown deepened when she realized that no one was missing.

Surely the Fire Nation ship hadn't trekked all this way South to just terrify a small village full of elderly, women and children.

"Ho-How did you-"

Ignoring Katara's stuttering, Naruto twisted around to face Kanna, the elderly women who seemed to be in charge in this place. Considering she was the one everyone went to with their problems, it wouldn't surprise Naruto in the slightest if she was in fact the chief and they just hadn't been told about it.

"What happened?"

Naruto felt Sasuke slink up to stand beside her, though he was thankfully smart enough to not start melting the snow off his parka, especially given the way in which the little village had just been invaded.

The elderly woman was watching her, blue eyes dark as she looked back towards the retreating Fire Nation ship, and then once again gave Naruto's clothes a glance far more through than she had that first day they'd met.

"It'd be best if you came inside," the elderly woman spoke gravely, and Naruto felt her face set into the stern expression she'd worn whenever she was due to go into battle.

So it was bad then.

Looks like their time at the South Pole was over after all.

 

 

* * *

 

 

"We have to go after that ship, Sokka. Aang saved our tribe, now we have to save him!"

Storming over to her brother, Katara felt her curled fingers, her fists, shake with the adrenaline that was no doubt coursing through her blood.

She'd found a boy in the ice. An air bending boy in the ice who was actually the Avatar that'd gone missing all those years ago. He'd been in the ice so long and he had no idea what the Fire Nation were going to do to him.

She'd heard horror stories of what they did to the water benders, and if that was what they did to her people, it was going to be so much worse for Aang.

He was an air bender, the Avatar! He was the number one enemy of the Fire Nation!

They wouldn’t just kill him, because killing him meant the next Avatar would be born into the Water Tribes. No, they' keep him alive.

But just barely.

And who knew what they'd do to him, to make sure he wouldn't escape. Aang had saved their village.

And now, they needed to save him.

"Katara, I-"

"Why can't you realize that he's on our side? If we don't help him, no one will. I know you don't like Aang, but we owe him and-"

"Katara! Are you gonna talk all day, or are you coming with me?"

Startling as Sokka gestured to the canoe, Katara felt a proud smile slowly starting to stretch across her face, before a sudden, deep voice filled her whole body with dread.

"You think you'll get anywhere on that?"

Spinning around at the voice, Katara froze at the sight.

Aang's bison, Appa, was stood before them now, and nestled upon the great flying beasts head was Naruto, Sasuke stood upon the saddle not far behind her. Their parkas were nowhere in sight now, and neither were they wearing the winter clothes they'd first appeared at the tribe in.

Now, Naruto stood in a pair of dull yellow pants, a matching yellow top and an uneven orange shall, short at the front but reaching down to her ribs at the back.

She looked, she looked like Aang.

Like an air bender.

The memory of Naruto bursting into the village, running far faster than any human she'd ever seen overlapped with Aang chasing after the penguins just hours ago. Naruto…

Naruto was an air bender.

And Gran Gran had known. It was why she'd insisted that Naruto's parka be orange, even if she couldn’t get the correct shade. It all made sense.

Had Naruto known Aang was somewhere around here and come to find him? Was that the reason the two of them had turned up.

"What are you two doing?"

Sokka hissed beside her, and Katara forced herself to pay more attention.

Now that she thought about it, there was a great deal of stuff tied down to the saddle, and Sasuke had pulled out his sword and proceeded to start sharpening it with a whet stone, small sparks flickering off the edge of the silver blade.

He too was dressed differently, in dark blue pants that were tucked into dark brown boots that were tightly laced around his shins. A plain grey shirt covered his upper body, the sleeves tight to his arms but high collar hung wide around his neck. The most interesting thing though, was the black armour that wrapped around his torso, clearly meant to deflect any blows that got past his guard. Not that she could picture many capable of that.

"What are you two doing?" Katara asked, the question slipping from her mouth before she could pull it back in.

Both older teens paused, cocking their heads in the same motion to stare down their noses at the two Water Tribe siblings.

With the sun hanging low behind them, a halo of golden light seemed to surround their forms for a few seconds, and Katara blinked furiously against the sudden contrast.

"We're going to rescue your friend, and then we're going to hustle him to the Northern Water Tribe as efficiently as we can," Naruto confirmed, pulling tight on the reigns that were attached to Appa's horns with a determined grin on her face.

Behind her, Sasuke stepped forwards, dropping off the side of the saddle and landing neatly on the ground.

"Your grandmother entrusted us with this task. But she also said that the two of you were welcome to join us. Under the sole condition you listen to every order both Naruto and I give you. One toe out of line, and you'll never leave the land of eternal snow again."

Beside her, Sokka gulped audibly, and Katara nodded furiously.

Gran Gran, was letting her leave with Naruto and Sasuke? On an adventure? To the Northern Water Tribe, of all places? She could learn water bending, she could become a real water bender and learn to fight and then she could help people. Help people like Naruto and Sasuke clearly do. Naruto and Sasuke, who were getting ready to take off.

Squawking, Katara hauled her bag up, dashing over to the side of Aang's great big flying bison and offering a terrified glance at the significant height difference between her and the top of Appa's saddle.

"Throw it up!" Naruto called down, holding her arms out, and Katara made a valiant effort to do just that. She still felt the sudden gust of wind that encouraged the duffle bag to make up the difference, Naruto effortlessly catching the sack and throwing it down onto Appa's saddle in order to help Sokka with his.

Katara was once again startled when Sasuke took a step forwards and scooped her up, jumping up onto Appa's saddle without any aid necessary, while Naruto hauled Sokka up with her own impressive strength.

"We'll go over the rules in a minute, first, let's get in the air and find our ship."

 

 

 

Looking out over the great expanse of clouds, Katara quietly wondered if this was perhaps how air benders felt the whole time, if they always felt like they could remain up so high and never come back down to earth.

Slowly, her eyes trickled over to look at Naruto, who was sat straight backed upon Appa's head, long blonde hair whipping about behind her.

Naruto was an air bender. And Katara had thought that she, the last water bender of the Southern Tribe, was a rarity.

Naruto was the last air bender if you discounted Aang, who was the actual Avatar. She'd had no one, hadn't had anyone to study under, any and all bending she knew, she had to have taught herself it. She couldn't even begin to imagine how lonely Naruto had felt.

But then again, she had Sasuke. Sasuke, who clearly stood by her through thick and thin, Sasuke who clearly knew about her air bending.

But how was Naruto an air bender? Hadn't they all died when the Fire Nation attacked all the Air Nomads?

But, here Naruto was. Had some of them, any of them at all, gotten away? Was that were Naruto came from? How did she know Sasuke? Sasuke…

Katara tried not to lie to herself, but she had been strategically ignoring Sasuke's general appearance past the fact he was pretty.

And yet, today she'd seen the Fire Nation soldiers again, seen the horrible boy that'd beaten up Sokka and taken Aang away.

Sasuke had the same colouring. His hair was jet black, his skin incredibly pale, he'd stood out so much among the light brown skin of the Water Tribe and their chestnut coloured hair. Plus…

Sasuke's eyes were gold.

Oh, he hid it well, he tilted his head so the light didn't catch them and they seemed to be as dark as the charcoal of Sokka's war paint. But Katara had seen it.

And she'd worried, privately, in the back of her mind. Sasuke, was at the very least, of Fire Nation descendant.

But he so clearly loved Naruto. Had he deserted his home country for her? Katara wasn't going to lie, that was very romantic.

Yet it didn't quell her worries completely. Sasuke had been nothing but- well, not quite friendly, but he hadn't been mean. He hid behind his dark façade, the one that was offset by Naruto's sunny nature.

But, he had taught Sokka how to fight better. He'd gone hunting at Gran Gran's request without a single complaint. He'd even played soldiers with the little kids, a lost look on his face as the children interacted with one another.

Katara had seen the same loneliness in his eyes that Naruto's glinted with and deep in her stomach, she'd known their childhoods hadn't been any good until they'd found each other.

"Listen, this is how it's going to go down. I will be tying you to the saddle," Sasuke began, dark eyes narrowed and a truly fearsome expression upon his face, "because quite frankly I don't trust either of you to not going rushing in there. Naruto and I are professionals. She'll be retrieving the Avatar. I'll be stopping the ship from following us for a while. If something goes wrong, the bison will at the very least return you to your grandmother." He glared at the both of them, as if daring Sokka or herself to dare argue against his rules.

Sokka, in fact, did open his mouth to protest, but Katara elbowed him in the ribs before he could get a word in edgeways.

After all, Naruto and Sasuke knew more about the world than they did. If they thought they weren't ready for it, then she'd at the very least trust their judgement.

Naruto and Sasuke had been on adventures before.

They knew what they were doing.

 

At least, Katara hoped they did.


	4. Temerity

 

 

 

 

**1.1  
** _Temerity_

 

 

 

 

 

Lieutenant Jee liked to consider himself, if not a particularly good man, a fair one.

It'd taken time to get to that stage, to get wiser and understand the ways of the world. To realise that what his nation was doing wasn't quite right, not that he had any power to stop the Fire Nation's ruthless march to victory.

No, Jee considered himself to own a particularly levelled head, even if his heart could make the odd decision for him. Such as coming aboard this ship.

Jee had served under General Iroh, then the Crowned Prince, when the man had undertaken his 600 day siege of Ba Sing Se. That had been Jee's personal turning point, as it had in turn been General Iroh's. He'd seen the orphans running for shelter, the sick and the dying in the gutters, the terrible burns their fire caused. He hadn't been surprised that the General had retired.

Saddened, yes. Surprised, no.

So, when three years later he'd heard that the great Dragon of the West was set to sail from the Fire Nation again, Jee had eagerly signed up to crew the ship in question.

Yes, Lieutenant Jee had a great deal of respect for General Iroh.

For the man's nephew? Not so much.

The boy was a brat. A spoilt rotten brat who had some serious issues. Jee had no idea why the boy had been banished, and honestly, he didn't care too much.

He had signed up for this madness because it was headed by the General, and for the General he would stay. The man was nice enough, and he'd pulled Jee's ass out of the firing line twice, though the man probably didn't remember it'd been Jee he was helping.

No doubt the faces of all those he'd saved would start to blur together after a reasonable amount of time.

Regardless, the important thing to take away from this was that Jee was a middleaged Lieutenant of the Fire Nation, who'd seen his fair share of battles and come away from it a wiser man.

That did not stop him from gaping like a fresh recruit at the sight before him.

He'd been on deck, talking to Ashoka -more like listening to the younger soldier complain about the absolutely freezing temperature this far South- when out of nowhere the loudest, shrillest war cry he'd ever heard had come roaring down at them.

From somewhere above them.

Jee's head had snapped up at the same time his battle honed instincts were telling him to get the hell out of the way, and he'd rolled to a side just in time to avoid the vicious attack that'd gorged right through the steel decking of the ship and into the hold below.

It cut through something, perhaps some rope holding up some supplies, because there was an almighty crash below them, followed by the sound of two very muffled feet landing ever so lightly on the deck.

Right now, Jee was coming out of his evasive roll, taking a moment to glance at the very wide eyed but certainly unharmed Ashoka, before he allowed his eyes to dart towards the threat.

That's where things went, wrong.

The fact that he actually took the time to observe their attack and her appearance was his first mistake, but given the way that the woman before him looked, perhaps that was understandable. Jee liked to think it was so.

It wasn't so much that their attacker was a woman -because the Fire Nation was all about gender equality, not like those backwards water savages- but more what she was wearing.

What she'd attacked with.

Because she was wearing orange and yellow with tall tan boots, and there was no fiery remains, nor water dribbling about from her attack. Hell, not even a few pebbles, even though Jee knew no earth bending moves with an attack like that.

But it just wasn't registering in his head.

After all, what were the chances that he'd go his entire life without meeting an air bender, only for two to pop up within hours of each other?

The female levelled a staff at them, though the craftsmanship of this one was rougher, shaped differently than the one they'd taken off the young Avatar. A cool, arctic breeze grumbled through the air, lifting the woman's golden bangs and scattering them around her face for a few moments, and Jee foolishly allowed his eyes to track the movement.

Mistake number two.

For in that second, reinforcements from below deck came storming up, in the same moment that the woman moved.

From his studies on the war and the four nations, Jee had been under the -evidentially false- impression that air bending was all about finding the path with the least amount of resistance, and that it was a purely defensive method of fighting.

Well, it certainly wasn't from where he was standing, running, ducking, right now.

The Airbender -and she was an Airbender, because it certainly wasn't fire that'd just pushed Ashoka against the hull and knocked him out- hadn't so much as hesitated to begin throwing sharp blades of wind and him, three of which had gauged into the deck below with such a clean cut that it was starting to make his sweat.

Three blasts of air had already knocked him back, and Jee knew that if she wanted too, the girl could have already hit him with a killing blow. So it seemed she stuck that that part of her peoples legacy.

Though, she would have had no one to learn from, especially given the age of the young monk they'd taken captive.

Growing up with the ability to air bend, in the current state of the world, it shouldn't surprise him as much as it did that she was so unnaturally brutal with her bending.

She moved and quickly and flighty as history had told him she would though, and for the first time in several years, Jee found himself easily outmatched, the girl catching his arm and twisting it until it no doubt sprained, and came dangerously close to snapping.

"Where is the Avatar?" The girl hissed, and with those animalistic features on her cheeks -birthmarks? Or tattoos?- she looked unnervingly feral.

Thankfully though, Jee didn't have to war with himself over giving up any form of information -tell the actually terrifying air bender what he knew? Disappointing the General though?- because from above them, on the upper decking of the ship, a staff rocketed over the balcony, a small figure in orange and yellow following after it.

The last thing that Jee saw was the Prince throwing himself fearlessly after the young monk as the golden haired woman smacked him across the head and sent him into the realm of unconsciousness.

 

* * *

 

Hitting the deck at an uncomfortable angle, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation hissed, trying to roll with the momentum so it didn't feel like the impact was about to tear his shoulder out of its socket.

He still ended up bouncing down the deck, if somewhat smoother than it'd have happened without any adjustment to his body.

In hindsight, perhaps jumping after the Avatar and his stupid glider hadn't been the best course of action.

But his ticket home had literally been slipping through his fingers with every flutter of his stupid orange shawl, and Zuko had just acted.

Now his torso was aching all over, and Zuko grunted in pain as he pushed himself upwards, eyes narrowing. He would not let the monk get away again. He would capture him, he would chain him up and break the glider, wouldn't leave him an escape this time, and then he would finally, finally get to return home.

Across from him, the Avatar rose to his feet, assuming a loose fighting stance with a particularly uneased expression upon his face. Zuko made to open his mouth, to taunt the boy, but then something caught the young monk's attention, his eyes rounding in his childish face and a look of excitement overcoming his face.

Zuko whipped his head around to see what on his ship could have possibly encouraged a reaction like that from the young air bender, and felt the blood chill distinctively in his veins.

Looking a sight more dangerous than the young monk he'd just been facing off against, a young woman with hair the colour of gold stood across from the two of them, with her wooden staff levelled threateningly at the Fire Nation Prince.

"Aang is it?" She asked, voice sweet like honey but with eyes of grey venom, gaze never once leaving Zuko as he quickly adjusted his body to go on the attack against the woman. She was older, held herself more confidentially and her battle stance was so much tighter than the Avatar's had been.

A threat.

As if the fact a good portion of his crew had already been downed wasn't enough of an indication of that.

"Your friends are waiting on Appa. Just, give me a minute here."

No!

Zuko lunged forwards, a desperate grab for the Avatar, but a concentrated blast of air sent him hurtling off course as the monk launched himself up and into the air, glider snapping open.

"NO!" Swinging a fist upwards, Zuko hissed as a leather clad boot connected with his side, sending him spinning and snuffing out the little fire he'd managed to summon up with that punch.

The woman stared at him, staff still held tightly, but now just gripped in one arm, the other held up and ready to strike again.

But now, Zuko was taking in her clothes, the colour of them, the design, and registering that the most recent gust of air that'd knocked him to a side had in fact, not come from the Avatar at all.

"An air bender," he breathed, looking the girl over once again before his eyes shot to the escaping Avatar. Who was flying towards an equally airborne mammal?

"I don't know why you're after the Avatar-" Zuko only just managed to duck out of the way, and had to force himself not to start flat out staring when the swipe of air he'd just avoided sliced clean through the metal deck. "-but apparently he's essential to the war ending. And I really wanna see this war end."

Wordlessly snarling, Zuko threw himself forwards, two quick shots of fire darting out from between his knuckles and soar towards the girl.

In a similar manoeuvre to the Avatar earlier that day, she spun her staff, displacing the fire and snuffing the blasts out, the wood twirling tauntingly in the sun light. Before he could gather his thoughts on the best way to capture the woman -the Avatar would come back for her, the only other air bender alive- a sharp burst of air caught him in the torso, feeling every bit like a punch to the stomach squared, and he was thrown back onto the deck again.

By the time he looked up, the golden haired woman was already up in the air, clinging to the staff with its orange wings as she looked back at him over her shoulder with a cheeky grin.

Snarling, Zuko surged to his feet, but stopped when a warning rumble came from the sky.

Where the sky had been a cloudless blue day, now dark storms stretched about above his ship. And most importantly, lightning was about, crackling.

Zuko barely even registered his uncle stepping out onto deck, unable to tear his wide golden eyes away from the streak of lightning that broke through the clouds next to the floating mammal the Avatar had just boarded.

He watched as a person leapt from the back of the flying animal, catching the lightning with one hand, the brilliant crackle of energy racing along his limbs, up and around his shoulders, and passing down his other arm.

The arm that was pointed at his ship!

Zuko saw it before he felt it, the flash of lightning and the deafening crack of thunder, the resounding boom, as the electricity struck the helm and blew out the upper half of the control room.

When he twisted back around, it was to the sight of a dark haired, pale skinned young man holding tight to the ankle of the blonde woman, offering him a smug salute as they both dropped onto the Avatar's floating animal before flying away.

And Zuko had never known such rage before.

 

 

* * *

 

 

"You're a fire bender!"

Aang really, really didn't understand why Sokka was so close to foaming at the mouth.

Sure, the scary guy with the scar wasn't pleasant, but this guy had helped him escape!

And the girl was an air bender too!

Looking over at the girl with yellow hair -he'd never met anyone with yellow hair, she matched the air bending clothes!- Aang found a grin stretching across his face, which the girl tentatively returned.

"This is why we never said anything," the fire bender grunted, folding his arms across his chest from where he was sat atop Appa's head, having twisted around to join in the conversation.

Come to think of it, Aang hadn't been told their names yet, but he had a good feeling this was the Naruto and Sasuke that the two Water Tribe siblings had been telling him about. And, Naruto was the girl one? Right?

"Sokka, I think Gran Gran already knew," Katara said quietly from beside her brother, rubbing at her wrists and Aang frowned. He wasn't happy that the two siblings had been tied up, but given the fact Sokka had already suggested they push the fire bender off Appa's back twice, it was probably a reasonable precaution

. "The spirits sent us to the Southern Water Tribe to make sure that when the Avatar resurfaced, he'd have some form of guidance," the girl murmured, before pausing and turning to look Aang in the eye again.

With a dip of her head, she grinned cheerfully, and Aang knew did within his bones that not only was she an air bender, but she had the spirit of one too.

"Avatar Aang, if you'll have us, me and Sasuke would love to help you. I can help with the spirit stuff, and Sasuke's never had formal training but he's a damn good fire bender and probably the most friendly one you're going to meet in a long time."

She -Naruto, the girl had to be Naruto right?- offered her hand, and Aang gladly took it.

"Yep! I'm good with that! We're going to the North Pole, I promised Katara I'd take her there, but I wanna make some stops along the way!"

Naruto raised a funnily coloured brow, but she nodded along as he outlined his plans, even if Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes, muttering a lowly 'you've got to be kidding me' beneath his breath.

 

Maybe, just maybe, being the Avatar wasn't going to be so awful after all.


End file.
